45 percent of Minnesota's pregnancies unintended, says new report

So says a new report from the Guttmacher Institute, which studies reproductive health. When one of its researchers crunched the 2008 numbers, she found that in 31 states, more than half of pregnancies were unintended.

According to the institute's analysis, here, relatively "just" 45
percent of all pregnancies in 2008 were unintended. Cross-reference that number with Minnesota's female population, and the figure breaks down to 43 unintended pregnancies per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44. That's 4.3 percent of all Minnesota women of child-bearing age who experienced an unintended pregnancy.

"Unintended" means different things. The
institute split that label into two categories, "mistimed" and
"unwanted." Most of the women who found themselves unexpectedly pregnant
in 2008 wanted a baby at some point, the institute found, just not
right then: While 27 percent of the unintended pregnancies were
unwanted, many more -- 73 percent -- came at the wrong time.

For a better idea of
how Minnesota compares, Delaware topped the list with 70 unintended
pregnancies per 1,000 women, and New Hampshire brought up the low end,
with 31 per 1,000. Across the country, rates tended to be higher in the
south and southwest, and in states with big cities. To visualize the trends, the institute put together a map:

For Minnesota and for most states, the institute got its data from several
sources, including a pregnancy monitoring survey known as PRAMS and
a Guttmacher-conducted census of abortion providers.

Update 9:20 a.m.: This post was corrected to more clearly represent the numbers.

"Between women ages 15 to 44, that number drops a little bit, to 43 unintended pregnancies in 1,000 women."

That number doesn't represent a drop, it's just the number instead of the percent. According to the report 43 pregnancies per 1000 women were unintended, with 53 intended. 43+53 = 96 total pregnancies. 43/96 = 45%.